The report analyses results from an online survey conducted in March 2014 which was distributed to the screen sector and garnered 382 valid responses.
The survey found the profile of a typical person participating in the screen sector is aged 40; could be either male or female; lives in Sydney; is highly educated with a minimum of a graduate degree; works for a privately owned small business not reliant on funding and services the Television sector.
They are employed as a Producer, earn on average $69,000 per annum and believe their earning capacity will increase on last year. They will tend to have more than one job but no more than two. The majority of their income will come from the screen industry.
Their average job tenure is 7 years having worked in the screen industry on average for 14.34 years. Every week they work on average 41.67 hours; are motivated not by money but by their passion for the screen industry and overall enjoy what they do.

PwC is pleased to present the 13th edition of The Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook 2014-2018, our flagship research report. The launch event will include revenue forecasts for eleven entertainment and media sectors as well as the results of our consumer and trend research.

It’s time to get the facts.
Art Facts is the new home for statistics about Australian arts. Here you will find a range of facts about Australia’s vibrant arts sectors and the latest trends in art creation, industry, global trade, participation and support.
Explore visual arts and craft statistics: from how many people attend galleries and do visual arts and craft to how much visual artists earn and the international connections of Australian arts practice.
Find out more about music: from what musicians earn to concert ticket sales and how many rock songs were released last year.
Research by The Australia Council

Some more good research from The Arts Council looking at participation in the Arts. It doesn’t include film as thats the realm of Screen Australia but I am assuming that the statistics would have similar results if applied to the film sector as well, and thought the research would be of value to readers of this website.

Arts in Daily Life: Australian participation in the arts is an independent study commissioned by the Australia Council, which provides insight into how Australians participate in the arts today.

It provides a comparison of shifting attitudes and behaviours by benchmarking the findings in 2013 against those from the original study in 2009.

The outcomes of this study paint a positive picture. Overall engagement with the arts is up and public attitudes to the arts are highly positive. Some of the key results tell us that:

Australians think the arts enrich our lives
Australians value Indigenous arts and there are great opportunities to grow audiences
The arts are important in the lives of Australian children
More Australians are participating in the arts
The Council has a deep commitment to ensuring there is a sound base of evidence to lead and support a national conversation about arts and culture in Australia. We hope this report provides valuable insights and enables you play an active part in this conversation.

Since its establishment in 1958, the AFI has played a central role in nurturing and supporting both screen culture and production, from the Australian film industry’s small beginnings to its development into an internationally recognised billion dollar industry. Shining a Light maps out the history of the AFI and the wider industry over the past fifty years and explores the relationship of screen culture to a successful production industry.

The book offers a timely and significant contribution to scholarship on Australian cinema, and is published at a critical time in Australian film history. The authors have interviewed key players on the local scene, undertaken twenty-seven interviews, and sifted through volumes of documentary evidence to chronicle the history of the AFI, its successes and role in Australian screen culture past, present and future.

As I interview my Originators, I am assessing their perseverance across a few key criteria.

1/ Professional Perseverance in terms of expertise, leadership etc
2/ the Partnership Perseverance in terms of relationships with your personal partner, creative partners and other partners
3/ the Personal Perseverance in terms of mental and physical health
and then of course the good old Financial Perseverance which comes in various forms:

Persevering with your own money you are investing in the film.
Persevering with the Opportunity Cost of loss income that could have been derived working elsewhere.
Persevering with the pressure of finding revenue from investors
and then Perseverance of managing the investor revenue alongside escalating budgetary issues, and then paying off debts as distribution revenues come in.

Srolling through Twitter yesterday, I came across an interesting bit of data from the programmer-critic Miriam Bale that extended beyond the usual 140 characters. Linking to an external app, Bale drew up a breakdown of what she calls “the cost to have an indie film career. Stipulating that most independent filmmakers finance at least a portion of their work, in addition to their basic living expenses, it would take about $119,112 to sustain four years of a “career.” Bale also postulates that working a full time gig at $12/hour, you could save around $3,072 a year, for the next 39 years, before breaking even.

The tech start up world is proving to be a rich source of inspiration for my thesis. In this article for Inc, Angel investor Brian Cohen talks to Issie Lapowsky about the importance of team chemistry, husband-wife dynamics, and how not to ask for money.

His advice, insights and experiences can easily apply to the world of feature film making.

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What is The Art of Perseverance?

It's a project that studies how filmmakers in Australia persevere during the process from development through funding, production, marketing and distribution and beyond.

The average film takes seven years to make. That's a lot of perseverance.

Over 40 (and counting) of Australia's top filmmakers and industry experts have been interviewed as to how they persevered in creating their film.

These insights are being passed onto the industry at large in the hope it inspires current and future filmmakers in Australia.

The documentary and eBook will be out in 2015 accompanied by a educational outreach program, and screening tour.

This website acts as a blog, a resource and as a forum for professional and emerging filmmakers, as well as industry professionals and in-fact anyone interested in entrepreneurialism, filmmaking and perseverance.